SRINAGAR: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Major General Ramón Guardado Sánchez of Mexico as the Head of Mission and Chief Military Observer for the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). Guardado succeeds Rear Admiral Guillermo Ríos of Argentina, with the Secretary-General expressing gratitude for Ríos’s service in United Nations peacekeeping, according to a UN announcement last night
Guardado brings a distinguished military career within the Mexican Army to his new role. Currently, he is Commissioner of the National Guard in Yucatán and has held several significant positions, including serving as Liaison to Congress for the National Defence Joint Staff and Chief Observer for the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia, where he monitored the peace process with the FARC-EP. Guardado also has extensive training in military administration and national security, having studied in both Mexico and the United States, with additional peace operations training in Argentina.
UNMOGIP, created by the Security Council in 1949, monitors the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan. While it operates within India and Pakistan as mandated, India maintains that UNMOGIP’s presence is redundant, citing the 1972 Shimla Agreement, which it asserts made Kashmir a bilateral issue without the need for third-party involvement.
According to the information on the mission website, the Mission is being managed by 110 personnel including 66 civilians. It draws its military personnel from the armies and police forces of Croatia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Argentina, Mexico, Switzerland, Italy, Romania and Sweden. Its yearly budget (20221 () is US $10519800 (nearly Rs 89 crore).
